Guilty In Mother's Death

A Broward County jury rejected a Coral Springs woman's insanity defense on Friday and decided that she knew she was doing wrong when she stabbed her adoptive mother to death at their home in May 1997.

Jurors found Jacquiline "Nikki" Reynolds not guilty of first-degree murder, the most serious charge against her, convicting her instead of second-degree murder with a weapon.

Several jury members, who did not want to be identified by name, said they agonized over deciding whether Reynolds was legally insane when she stabbed Billie Jean Reynolds to death.

"We hammered out a verdict," one female juror said. "It was a tough one, but we reached a verdict."

Their decision brought relief to Billie Jean Reynolds' sisters, Ann and Linda, and her husband, Robert J. Reynolds, who has since remarried. None of the family members would comment on the outcome, but prosecutor Deborah Zimet said they were relieved to finally have a verdict in the case.

This was the second time Nikki Reynolds, 20, stood trial for the murder of her adoptive mother. The first trial ended in May when the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Reynolds cried nervously as she waited to hear the jury's decision. When the verdict was announced she sobbed, gave her attorney a shocked look and buried her face in her hands.

Just a few rows away, Reynolds' biological mother, Katrina Ramos, stared at her daughter.

"Thank God it's not first-degree murder," Ramos said as she left the courtroom. "We'll build a life from here."

Reynolds had admitted to the killing but hoped to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a verdict that could have sent her to a secure psychiatric center for treatment for an indefinite period of time.

If convicted of first-degree murder, she would have been sentenced to life in prison. Sentencing guidelines for the second-degree murder conviction indicate she faces 22 to more than 30 years in prison.

Ramos testified during the trial that she had severe psychiatric problems and threw herself down the stairs when she was pregnant to try to abort her daughter.

Reynolds' attorney, Wayne Corry, tracked Ramos down after the killing. Mother and daughter were reunited and have begun to build a relationship that includes weekly phone calls to Ramos from the jail.

Corry said he was disappointed by the verdict. During the trial, he said Reynolds suffered from serious depression and was in a psychotic state when she took a kitchen knife and stabbed her adoptive mother 25 times.

"I found a genuine lack of meaningful appreciation of what she had done," Corry said. "She would talk as if she wasn't facing the enormity of a first-degree murder trial."

Prosecutor Zimet conceded that Reynolds had emotional and psychiatric problems but said Reynolds knew what she was doing was wrong and she knew the consequences of her actions when she attacked.

Reynolds gave taped confessions to police where she seemed to indicate that she knew what she was doing was wrong.

Reynolds told police she planned to kill her boyfriend, Carlos Infante, then a fellow student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, because he had just jilted her and she did not want anyone else to have him.

She planned to kill Infante at school the following day, she said. When she found out her parents would accompany her to school to see a counselor about a pregnancy she faked, Reynolds decided she would have to kill her parents so she could go to school at her regular time and stab Infante.

Family members said the Reynoldses doted on their adopted daughter and the family had a strong religious faith. Robert J. Reynolds was a deacon at the Coral Springs Baptist Church where Billie Jean Reynolds and her adopted daughter sang in the choir together.

Sounding hysterical on a taped 911 call she made after the stabbing, Nikki Reynolds told the dispatcher that she abandoned her plan to kill her adoptive father after realizing how physically demanding it was to attack her mother.

Paula McMahon can be reached at pmcmahon@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4533.